


Picking Up The Pieces

by lasairfhiona



Series: Fiona Saga [10]
Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-23
Updated: 2011-04-23
Packaged: 2017-10-18 12:59:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/189130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasairfhiona/pseuds/lasairfhiona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fiona has a challenge...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Picking Up The Pieces

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a story which is still sitting unfinished on my hard drive and chances are it may never get finished as the muse has left for it...

Joe was perched on a bar stool behind the counter, in front of him was the paperwork for last week. He hated doing paperwork, he had better ways to spend his time. His meeting with the accountant last week started the ball rolling to get a permanent bookkeeper, once he'd gotten the work in order, that is, which is why he was currently sitting with a beer in reach and his accounts payable spread out, he didn't want to scare away anyone before they started

The sound of the door halted him in mid shuffle of the alcohol receipts. *Damn* Methos must have forgotten to lock the door when he left earlier. "We're closed," he called out hoping to dissuade them from coming all the way in.

"Even to me?" A voice asked.

Joe's head snapped up and looked toward the door, "Amy," Joe was surprised to see his 'daughter' standing there. He levered himself away from the stool and made his way around the bar. "Hi Honey," he said as he embraced his daughter. Even though he spoke with her every once in a while, he hadn't seen her since she walked out his Blues Bar in Paris a couple years ago. "How are you doing?"

She smiled. "I'm good. Joe, we need to talk," she said without preamble.

"Sure what's up?" He asked as he released her, wondering what had her so serious.

"This is Amy Jeffers," Amy introduced the woman who had followed her into the bar.

 

Joe turned to acknowledge the other woman. "Joe Dawson," he said, shaking her hand.

"I know. Call me AJ, everyone else does." She told him. Her voice was deep, a whole tone and a half lower than Fee's.

"That AJ?" he asked surprised that she would be standing in his bar. She was almost a legend in the research department of Watcher Central.

AJ laughed, "I see you recognize the name." She watched as Joe nodded. "I should probably also tell you that Fiona and I are good friends. That's why we are here. I asked Amy to bring me to you."

"You're that Amy?" Joe asked, he'd heard quite a bit about _Amy_ from Fiona.

"That's right," she told him, "Joe, I'm looking for Fiona."

"Fiona? Why do you want Fiona?" he couldn't help but wonder why she would be looking for Fee.

"I'll explain everything else later. I just need to know where she is right now," AJ stated with a sense of urgency.

"She at the dojo working with Richie Ryan, she promised to teach him some moves with a quarterstaff. They are actually due back here pretty soon." Joe answered, confused as to what the urgency to find Fiona was.

"He's not her student is he?"

Joe shook his head. "No. Why?"

Before AJ could answer, Richie burst through the door. "Joe, it's Fiona, she got challenged in the parking lot and is going to meet Elisa at the warehouse down by the docks."

"Damn," AJ whispered under her breath.

Joe started to move around the bar, but Amy stopped him. "Damit, let me go."

"Joe, Dad," Amy said, letting the fact she called him 'dad' get his attention. "You are too close. Let AJ go, if Fiona sees you there she won't be at her best and she needs to be at her best. I'll will stay with you. Richie can you show AJ where to go?"

Richie and AJ took off out the door leaving a very frustrated Joe behind the bar to wait. He'd waited to see the outcome of challenges before but never had any of them meant as much to him as this one did. Not even MacLeod's, as much as he hated to admit.

Amy joined him behind the bar and together they began to clean up the paperwork. There was no way Joe would be able to concentrate on it now. Once they had the paperwork clean up, he realized he hadn't asked what exactly was going on and why this woman was looking for Fiona. He also knew he didn't want to know, not right now. He'd asked later. Working in silence they began to do an inventory of what was needed for the New Years Eve party tomorrow night.

Minutes passed slowly as they stacked glasses. Time stretched even slower as they started to restock the cocktail napkins, stirs, fruit picks and god forbid the umbrellas. A glance at the clock told Joe it had only been a half an hour.

Just as they finished with the glasses the doors opened again. Joe held his breath, it was too soon. Connor, Duncan, Methos all walked through the door.

"Hey Joe," Duncan called but stopping short when he saw the strange woman behind the bar. He'd never Met Joe's daughter.

Methos recognized Amy and immediately questioned, "Where's Fee?"

Joe flinched and shook his head. He couldn't answer. He couldn't tell Methos that the woman important to them was taking a challenge that had important people in the Watchers worried about her.

Amy answered for him, "She was challenged by Elisa Rodriguez."

"Who?" Duncan asked, never having heard of the woman.

"What? Amy please explain." Methos asked, knowing the others had not met the young woman standing with Joe behind the bar.

Joe couldn't answer their questions, he didn't know how too. He had no idea why Elisa would challenge Fiona, or why she was so ready to take the challenge.

Amy introduced herself and noticed Duncan MacLeod's raised eyebrow at her name. Joe had obviously told MacLeod about her. "Elisa Rodriguez has had a grudge against Fiona since Fiona killed her lover Maria Sanchez 100 years ago. AJ and Richie followed her and they will let us know one way or another," she explained.

"I remember that," Connor added. He'd run into Fiona and her student.

"What happened?" Methos asked curious as to what happened.

"Fiona had a student, Maya I believe was her name. Fiona was about to cut her lose when she ran into the Elisa and Maria. If I remember correctly the challenge between Maria and Maya was unfair and Maria pulled a series of dirty tricks then ended with Maria pulling shooting Maya before taking her head. Fiona witnessed the confrontation. She waited a day and then challenged Maria herself. Elisa didn't know what was going on and only heard part of the words Fiona and Maria were shouting to each other. All Elisa knew was what she managed to overhear and the fact FIona took Maria down quickly," Connor explained as Amy pushed a bottle of scotch and a glass in front of him after he'd shook his head no to the beer.

Joe fretted around the bar while the others sat at the bar and nurswed beers or in Connor's case a bottle of Scotch. Nearly an hour and a half had passed when all of the sudden the immortals in the room sat a little straighter and looked toward the door. Joe turned his back, he couldn't look. He didn't want to not see her walk through the door.

Richie and Amy helped Fiona into the bar.

"Dad..." Amy called when she saw he wasn't looking.

Joe turned and sighed with relief when he saw her supported by Richie and AJ. Her clothes showed the signs of a tough fight, slashes tinged with blood, stretched across abdomen and thighs.

Fiona and Joe locked eyes and slowly she untangled herself from the two that supported her. She stumbled forward and headed straight to Joe. He met her half way and scooped her up in his arms, holding her tight against him. Without a word to anyone Joe ushered her out the door, throwing the keys to the bar to MacLeod as he passed by.

Once at home the first thing Fiona did was head to the shower, she wanted to wash the dried blood and dirt off. Joe sat watching her in the shower and handed her first a towel and then a big shirt and a pair of leggings. He had her cape lying across the bed just in case she wanted it.

She couldn't say anything, not yet. She'd talk to him once she spent some time alone, thanking the gods for the strength to survive this challenge. She ran her hand along Joe's chest as she passed by on the way to her sitting room. Closing the door behind her, she turned on the music and lit the candles.

Joe threw open the door when he heard the chime.

"Methos."

"Joe. I assume she's in her sitting room?" Methos asked heading for the little room Fiona decorated for herself.

"Methos, let her be," Joe said, grabbing Methos's arm, stopping the oldest Immortal from going   
down the hall toward Fiona's sitting room.

"I just want to check on her," Methos countered sincerely as he pulled his arm out of Joe's grasp and dodged around the watcher to start down the hall. He'd been worried about her worried about what this particular challenge would do to her mentally.

Grabbing the Immortal's arm again, Joe growled. "I mean it. Leave her alone."

Methos glared at his friend. "Damnit Joe. I'm worried about her. I want to make sure she is okay."

"She's not okay, which is why she has been in there for the past hour," Joe stated angrily, looking at the closed door and wishing he could be in there with her.

Alarmed by what Joe had told him, Methos once again tried to push past Joe's bulk demanding, "Then why the hell did you leave her alone?"

"You know as well as I do, Methos," Joe reminded him, holding his ground. "She likes to be alone after taking a quickening. I respect that and so should you." Respecting it, however, didn't make it any easier to wait. The thing he wanted most to do was hold her in his arms. Wipe away her tears. Hear her heart beat and feel her breath against his skin.

Joe was right, he knew it, but it didn't make it any easier. He was concerned for his old friend and it was making him crazy. He'd seen Fiona when Richie and AJ half carried her thought the back door of Joe's bar and couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her in such bad shape after a challenge and quickening. "How can you be so calm?" Methos asked, frustrated.

Joe's laugh sounded more like a cry when he answered, "You think I'm calm? Irish courage," he said pointing to the bottle of whiskey and glass sitting on the table in front of the sofa. It had been a convenient place to set it as he paced back and forth waiting for Fiona to finish. "Methos, go home, let me take care of her," he asked, his voice softening. He knew the Immortal was only worried, but he couldn't deal with him and his own feelings at the same time. "I'll tell her you were here and have her call you."

Methos conceded finally when he saw the desperation and near panic on Joe's face. "Take care of her," he said, grabbing his coat and walking out the door, pulling it closed a little harder than necessary.

"Don't I always?" Joe responded his words falling into empty air.

 

xxxxx

Finally too concerned to wait any longer, Joe headed to Fiona's sitting room. Quietly opening the door, he stood in the doorway, watching and waiting. He wouldn't intrude on her quiet time but he had to see her, to reassure himself she was alive. It was her ritual to thank the gods for giving her strength to survive and from the looks of her earlier she'd needed every ounce they had provided.

He watched as she blew out the candle on the table with all her crystals and other symbols and knew she was finished. "Tough night, huh?" he said as he crossed the room and wrapped her in his embrace.

"You have no idea," she whispered, sinking into the soft folds of his shirt.

Joe guided them over to the small sofa and settled them in the cushions. Fiona curled against him and he could tell by the ease which she took his guidance she was still bone-tired, both physically and mentally. She normally fought him tooth and nail when he tried to coddle her. "Want to tell me about it?" he asked as he stroked her back.

She shrugged, but told him, "It was probably the hardest challenges I've had I a very long time," she sighed. "There was just so much history between us and it brought up to many memories. I taught her and unfortunately I also taught her some of the tricks Methos taught me."

Joe winced when he heard Methos' name -- he'd seen them spare once and swore he would never watch them again. Unlike the games of endurance and tit for tat sparing she did with Duncan or the quarterstaff work she did with Richie, sparing with Methos took on new meaning. Duncan likened it to a primal fight for life that left them battered, bloodied and more often than not one of them run through. In fact, she often looked like she did tonight when she finished sparing with Methos. But unlike when she spared with Methos, he could have lost her tonight.

Fiona looked up when she felt the quake run through him and saw the desperate look on his face. "Are you okay?" she asked concerned about him.

"Now I am," he replied as he cuddled her back against him. "I almost lost you tonight didn't I?" he asked quietly against the top of her head.

"Yes," she told him, not wanting to sugar coat the truth. They never talked about her challenges but she knew what they did to him, by the way he held her afterward. He had to be able to handle this. She didn't want to lose him because he couldn't bear for her to take a challenge.

"God..." he held her tight in his arms and tried not to think about what would happen when someone better finally came along.

 

The end


End file.
